FT Alphaville’s Lunch Wrap is a round up of the top news and views on FT Alphaville and FT.com as at noon, London time.
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- Prices surged on the London stock market, recouping much of Wednesday’s losses, with the FTSE 100 trading 111 points higher at 6112. They atmosphere was electrified by an approach by Imperial Tobacco for Altadis of Spain. Imperial has put €45 per share on the table, valuing its rival around €11.5bn.
- Cadbury also pulled a rabbit out of the hat, announcing a demerger of its drinks and confectionery businesses only a day after an activist US shareholder appeared on the company’s register.
- Not to be outdone, French IT services firm Atos Origin saw its shares suspended following a Bloomberg report that it had received private equity overtures.
- Meanwhile, in the Far East, efforts by South Korea’s government to energise the local high-yield market have not curried favour with fund managers and distributors.
- Across the South China Sea, we learn that Chinese enterprises without the heft or profits for a splashy initial public offering are finding they can get a coveted overseas listing through a reverse merger.
- Staying in Asia, amid reports that private equity investment into India is surging, a new report suggests the share of pe investment in listed companies in India declined significantly last year.
- Jeffrey Garten, the Yale School of Management business guru, also gives private equity firms some advice on how to reform their practices.
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